Raising the white flag was the theme of last week — or so it initially appeared.

The Phoenix Suns started it by trading Hedo Turkoglu, Jason Richardson and Earl Clark to Orlando. Phoenix got Vince Carter and Mickeal Pietrus in return, good players, but the prizes were Marcin Gortat, a first-round draft pick and projected future cap space. Playoffs this season are a goal but not a necessity. Future stability around veteran Steve Nash and an up-and-coming core of good young players is most pressing.

In Detroit, rumors swirled wondering if usually reliable Rip Hamilton was calling it a season by not playing hard. He denied he was quitting on the team. Team president Joe Dumars brushed the notion aside, and Hamilton promptly scored 35 points, including six 3-pointers, on 13-of-20 shooting in his first game after the controversy. But the accusations won’t be silenced so easily.

In Denver, the stated goal this season has never wavered and never will. The Nuggets want to win, win big and win now. But after the expected Carmelo Anthony trade, the organization has to ask itself what the best course of action will be.

Denver fans saw a full Nuggets roster minus Anthony play a competitive game against San Antonio. It was a road game, against a team that is expected to challenge the Lakers for supremacy in the Western Conference.

But is competitive play good enough?

If the season turned into a .500 affair with barely making the playoffs or getting a few pingpong balls in the NBA draft lottery the two possible options, would missing the playoffs be a good thing for the Nuggets as they weigh their future? It would do something protected picks obtained in a trade cannot do — guarantee a spot in the lottery. With any luck on the bounce of the balls, that pick could be a high one. And provided they declare for the draft, waiting in the lottery could be a player such as North Carolina’s Harrison Barnes, Baylor’s Perry Jones, Kentucky’s Terrence Jones, Ohio State’s Jared Sullinger or another player of that ilk.

Broncos fans overwhelmingly came to the conclusion that losing is a good thing in order to maximize the team’s draft slot and thus, they hope, shorten the time it takes to get back to respectability. Would Nuggets fans be of the same mind?

When the Washington Wizards traded Gilbert Arenas to Orlando in exchange for Rashard Lewis, their coach, Flip Saunders, acknowledged the team was in full demolition mode. “We’re totally in a rebuild,” he said.

Nuggets coach George Karl doesn’t believe in rebuilds.

“I’ve never been a fan of this ‘rebuild mode,’ tearing it down and going to the bottom,” he said. “I don’t think you have to go to the bottom. You can go down a little bit, but then bounce right back up.”

The NBA is an unforgiving league, hard on teams desperately trying to scramble from rags to get to riches. There are no last-place schedules, as is the case in the NFL. There are no set draft positions based on your order of finish. Teams are only promised better odds of getting the top pick based on how bad they were. It is a much more difficult road to navigate.

“Expectations in our league are a little crazy,” Karl said. “They think it’s easy to get to the conference finals, they think it’s easy to win in the playoffs. It’s really difficult. Once you make the playoffs like we made the playoffs for seven years, all of a sudden we’re supposed to be a championship team. There are a lot of teams that take five or six years to take that next step. We made that step two years ago, and we’re trying to refigure it out. In this league, staying at the top is hard and getting to the top is probably harder.”

Odds and ends.

As the J.R. Smith trade rumors to Chicago continue to float out there, his brother, Chris, is in full favor of the athletic Nuggets shooting guard moving to the Windy City. On Wednesday he tweeted this: “I #pray @JR_Swish goes to the bulls…… #wishfulthinking” . . . They don’t want to hear it, and yes it is early, but it’s fun to peek nonetheless. At 25-4 the Spurs are just off the pace of the 1996 Chicago Bulls, who won a still-standing NBA-record 72 games. The Bulls were 26-3 through 29 games. . . . Per the NBA: Since the 2006-07 season, the Nuggets are the only team not to have suffered a losing streak of at least four games. Since Feb. 26, 2007, the Nuggets have played 300 regular-season games without losing four in a row.

SPOTLIGHT ON

Kings center DeMarcus Cousins

Los Angeles Clippers rookie Blake Griffin is overshadowing the entire NBA rookie class, and that includes one talented, yet troubled first-year player in Sacramento named DeMarcus Cousins. He was the consensus best player not named John Wall or Evan Turner, but because of major concerns with maturity and attitude issues the Kentucky standout slipped to fifth in the draft as lower-maintenance players at his position, Derrick Favors and Wesley Johnson, were taken ahead of him. And in his first few months in Sacramento, he’s showing why there was apprehension. He has already feuded with coach Paul Westphal, who has fined him and kicked him out of practice. Cousins was fined and benched last week for making a choking gesture to Golden State’s Reggie Williams, who missed a free throw late in a game between the Kings and Warriors. According to a report, Cousins was told he wouldn’t start again until he started acting more professional. Against all of this is a talented player averaging 11.4 points and 7.4 rebounds with four double-doubles. Cousins’ future is bright, if he can ensure he’s around long enough to get there.

Chris Dempsey arrived at The Denver Post in Dec. 2003 after seven years at the Boulder Daily Camera, where he primarily covered the University of Colorado football and men's basketball teams. A University of Colorado-Boulder alumnus, Dempsey covers the Nuggets and also chips in on college sports.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Tyreek Hill didn’t know what to do when he started hearing thousands of people in Arrowhead Stadium chanting his name, even as he stood all alone on the frozen turf waiting for the punt.